The difference is that an idiot user doesn't get support from fellow Linux users, the user gets berated. Then two things can happen.

1.) The idiot user flees crying to another system, to be an idiot who does get encouragement from other idiots to be an idiot.

2.) The idiot user cleans up his/her act and stops being an idiot.

In both cases it is problem solved.

Subscribed to it? So paying for a locked up, VM-ed Windows is better than for a bare metal one...

Beter pay Valve for SteamOS games. Better long term prospects.

Some people do make good on the threat. I know I did when Microsoft threatened to put me in a digital ghetto with Project Paladium.

My machine? Then it is my Linux.

It doesn't necesarrily get worse, but you need to be open and honest to your closest people. Tell them that you had to learn social interaction and that it doesn't come naturally.

It's what I did and people accept me with the occasional weird now, because they know I make a real effort to fit in.

Occasional contacts with people I don't see regularly tend to go well, as they don't see me often enough to know that I'm off sometimes.

It's still embarrassing to miss a social cue every once in a while though, because that makes you stick out like a sore thumb.

Feelings of isolation will never go away completely, but I combat that rationally. If people ask my boyfriend how I'm doing, that means they care about me. If they care about me, I add something of value to their lives. That makes me part of their group.

This really happened? It didn't concoct as a feverish fantasy in your brain?

I can honestly say that in all my 41 years, I've never, ever mentioned that I'm gay while ordering fries.

Ah, and here we have it, the petty reason why you are bandying about a lot of rhetoric like perverted and unnatural. Don't flatter yourself pal, just because you happen to have a penis, doesn't mean homosexual men are lusting after you. With about 3.5 billion men in the world, chances are that you aren't that overwhelmingly attractive. Even if you were God's sexual gift to Earth, I have been with my man in a committed relationship for thirteen years now, so your penis doesn't even come in the picture.

Munich has had this system since 2004. I refuse to believe that Munich could have survived this long on the system if it really was like in TFS.

*** You guys are missing the point. ***

Are we? What you describe is going into a venue in zombie mode and just do the first thing that pops up in your head. Yeah, one can live that way and always feel fulfilled with the "knowledge" that you "got what you wanted", while spending an unnecessary fortune on overpriced products and services.

While I do use ad-blockers and don't watch to much television these days, I still see and hear ads. They are sometimes amusing, sometimes annoying and most of the time completely forgetable. I haven't found myself with a bag of groceries yet where the thing was overflowing with brandname products.

When I go shopping I think in product categories. What kinds of products do I need? Who sells that the cheapest, with acceptable quality? With every item I get that is not on the shopping list I stop and force myself to think, do I really need what I just fetched off the shelf? Most of the time it is not a top brand item, but I'll put it back all the same if it doesn't make sense to purchase. (But yeah, this is a little spur of the moment influencing by placement and packaging...)

Bigger purchases I might also think about what was advertised, but I always research the range of products and I purchase that which has good reviews online and has the most bang for the buck. If I was influenced by mass advertising, my tv would have been a Samsung (as that is being spammed in The Netherlands). My current TV is an LG, not because it was an LG, but because it had the right specs and the right price.

The dual licensing of Qt came after the creation of the Gnome DE. Before that the Qt license was "free" (no licensing fees) for non-commercial use, but not FOSS and that was the point of contention.

Stallman is OK with dual licensing, as it is up to the licensee to go with the closed license. The FOSS licensed variant makes sure that one can choose which.

*** Overall mandatory participation systems are a better way ***

Assuming the "voters" can be arsed to look up the politicians and the election programs, instead of just resentfully hauling their carcasses into a voting booth and crossing one of the pretty check boxes or just ticking the mark at the party that the family has alway voted for.

Politics and elections are like Russian salad. Voting determines the ratios of the constituent ingredients/parties, but at the end of the day you get the same old Russian salad.

Automation will free us up to do things we'd rather do.

My my, what positivity. Automation will label those out of a job as just another unnecessary mouth to feed.

A lack of tech knowledge is therefore pretty unforgivable

Have you ever seen a CEO (or other executive) do something themselves that isn't a braindead easy and canned procedure on a computer? Any time it requires a modicum of application knowledge and a smidge of creativity, they come running to their underlings to delegate the task.

This is also typical:

[T]he survey of 436 global business leaders finds that only 23% are confident their organizations have the knowledge and skills to succeed in the digital aspects of their business.

The organisation as a whole probably has enough knowledge present to adequately cope with digital demands, but this knowledge is never tapped, because most of it isn't formalised in a certificate or diploma, so it doesn't officially exist. Therefore the employees are digital peasants and the company is doomed.

Seems to me like a problem solved. Everybody happy.

Were big, we own this shit, we don't want to create new stuff, we want to be paid in perpetuity!

- mob of Corporate Leeches

You forget one thing. If copyright protection is dead, then it doesn't matter if you only distribute binaries.

Take as much visible source as you like. Put it in binaries with your own "secret" sauce. People who want human readable source will decompile your binaries (even obfuscated ones) and extract any valuable bits you came up with. With impunity.

It works both ways. Either you have protections or no one has. Don't try to hide behind contract law. One leaked copy and one breach of contract later, everyone who wasn't a party to the contract can do whatever they want.